The Perfect Predicament
by Secretly M
Summary: Rochelle entered the apocalypse as a weak, needy women and left as a hardened, self-reliant survivor. This is her story. [First-person, possible NickxRo]
1. The Vannah

**The Perfect Predicament**

_Secretly M_

I leaned against a news truck as the men around me set up their cameras. If I was nervous, I couldn't feel it through my excitement.

I smiled wide as my manager signaled to me that it was time to go on air. Before I left my partner Jacob caught my attention.

"Hey, Rochelle, how about a pic before you become too famous to talk to me?"

I rolled my eyes before turning around and posing for the camera. The camera flashed and Jacob smiled when he took a quick look at the photo. My Boss yelled for me to come back. Jacob winked at me before I turned back and made my way to my position in front of the evac center.

Before I could start speaking a man in a hazmat suit cried out in pain. The attacker leaning over him, blood dripping from its mouth. After that, the scene broke out in chaos. Guns firing, civilians panicking. All I did, all I could do, was stand there in awe as the world around me broke. I'd seen my fellow co-workers report about this happening everywhere else around the world, and now it was happening right before my eyes.

"Ro, run!" Jacob yelled.

I snapped out of my faze and started panicking. With very little hesitation I hurried into "The Vannah".

In the main lobby stood three men who quickly turned their heads towards me.

"Ey', you one of them… "infected?"

I shook my head, still a bit confused about what was happening. The Southerner took my hand as the four of us ran up the stairs. He didn't even say anything or ask me more questions, just dragged me along. We were well ahead the other two older men behind us.

"Who the hell…. puts an evac center…. up thirty flights of goddamn stairs."

The oldest of us four stopped to take a breath. His size made it kind of funny, but my smile didn't last too long. Our footsteps echoed as the man in the suit teased the Elder.

"Hey, Coach, maybe the helicopter…. maybe it's made of chocolate." His breathing quickened as a weaze escaped his throat, which I'm sure was supposed to be a laugh.

Coach gave him a face I'd never seen before, one which kind of warmed my heart. I let a little giggle escape and jogged up the last flight of stairs. The Southerner pushed open the door that lead to the roof. I pushed him aside, looking for the helicopters that were supposed to be on roof.

"This can't be happening, this can't be happening, this can't be happening…." I said, closing my eyes and wishing for the helicopters in the sky to catch a glimpse of the survivors stuck on the roof.

"Aren't they supposed to be savin' our asses?" The Elder complained.

"Looks like there's been a change a plans." The man in the suit answered, standing back up straight from his bent over form.

"At least they left sum' supplies here for us. Better'ta have one and not need it than not have one and need it." The Southerner spoke quickly. I peered at the table that held four melee weapons, four firearms, and four med-kits.

'I got luck this time….' I thought as I grabbed an ax and slung the red pack over my shoulders.

Coach was still looking at the sky, frowning.

"Y'all alright over there?" The Southerner asked, looking over at me and Coach.

"Hurry the hell up, I'm losing my patience for you two. We can reminiscence later." The man in the suit leaned in the doorway, his arms crossed. He didn't seem as angry as he put off, though.

"He's right…." I agreed. "We need to forget the past. Until we get to safety than this is our new life. I know it sucks, but we need to go."

There wasn't a word I said that wasn't true. My heart burned with sadness, the only person I had left was Jacob, but I took my own advice and forgot about it.

"Alright. We head to the mall, that's where the helicopters were headin'." Coach grabbed a pair of pistols and med-kit and our little group made our way down the stairs leading into the hotel.

The suit held up his hand, and peeked through a crack in the door. "Get your weapons ready, we got a lot of infected ahead."

As soon as the group was ready, the suit opened the door and we rushed in. I swung my ax at an infected running towards me and cut straight through the middle of its skull. Blood splattered onto me and after wiping my eyes I pulled the ax out of the skull with little effort. The suit and Elder were picking off zombies with their pistols, killing most of them. The Southerner had a crowbar, swinging it back and forth, knocking down zombies and then going back to finish them off.

"Hey, guys, look over here." The man in the suit said, his finger on a map.

I made my way over to the room with the other two survivors following behind me. I stood behind him with my hands on my hips as the Southerner sat on the table behind us and the Elder searched the room for supplies.

The suit pointed at a red circle on the map. "That's New Orleans. Says it's the only military evac that's still in tact."

"Guess if the mall thing don't work then we can start headin' over there." The Southerner said, standing up and crossing his arms.

The suit and I turned around, ready to leave, when Coach tossed something to the Southerner.

"Son, I trust you to keep this in your med-kit."

The Southerner turned it over to take a quick look. 'Pain Pills' I thought as I inspected the small white container with a yellow and blue label. The Southerner tucked it into a pocket in his pack and our group head outside.

We stepped lightly and checked each room whether the door were open or not..

"Damn, the elevators are broke." Coach said, pounding on the doors a few times.

"Well in an emergency you're not supposed to be in an elevator. I guess that doesn't apply in the zombie apocalypse." The man in the suit said, smirking.

I smiled a little too, and lead the group down the next hallway. As I kept walking, flames bursted into front of me. My ears started ringing and I fell onto the floor. Burns covered my arms and burnt holes at the knees of my jeans. The Southerner quickly rushed to help me up, but was stopped by the wave of infected the came rushing from the room next to us. The Elder and suit helped by using their guns, and the Southerner got me back up on my feet. The suit got in front of me and pt bullet in the head of any infected that happened to get near me. When the horde was killed and piles of the dead were on the floor, Coach turned to me. He quickly slung his med-kit off his shoulders and put ointment on my hands, he wrapped bandages around them and the Southerner tossed me his pills. The pain quickly went away and I was able to grip my weapon once again. Though, I knew the pain would come back soon. Our group headed forward once again.

"Looks like we're gonna have to go out on the ledge." The Elder said, busting the window that led to them open.

The Southerner grabbed an adrenaline off a shelf and the Suit grabbed another bottle of pills. The Southerner led the way. I held onto the Elder's shoulder as we walked across, an he didn't seem to mind. I'd always had a fear of heights, and my heart panicked even more than when the flames exploded.

The Southerner was walking with ease, as if he didn't have a fear in his heart. I was glad to have someone brave on our team.

Then, everything happened in a split-second. The Southerner was grabbed by an infected with oddly long tongue and dragged across the ledge.

"Ahh! Th-this….thing's….chokin' me!" He managed to yell.

Coach ran for the Southerner, slipping and falling. He had managed to grab the ledge and was calling for help as well as the Southerner. When I look at Coach, I realized he was too big for me to pull up myself. I turned to the suit and realized his suit was being ripped to shreds by an infected with a hoodie a large claws. I ran to the suit first and pushed the infected off, chopping his head clean off before it could react. This time, I didn't stop to wipe the blood off my face. He was bleeding out, far too weak to help me. I ran to the Southerner and ripped the tongue off, pushing the infected off the building ledge. The Southerner had already passed out, leaving only me to help the Elder. I held out my hand and Coach grabbed it, partly pulling himself up by walking along the outer part of the building. When he made it all the way up, I fell back and through a nearby window. He helped me up and I ignored the cuts.

"Go to suit, I got the kid." I said, running to the Southerner.

First, I checked his pulse, which was slowed but still beating. I held his nose and blew into his mouth, then pushed on his chest. I repeated it until he started blinking slowly. I smiled and helped him up. He bent over to catch his breath. I helped the Southerner walk over to where I last saw the suit.

Coach was bent over him, wrapping bandages around his wound. Blood seeped through and the suit grunted when the Elder and I helped him up. The Southerner ran forward to guard me and the Elder as we helped the suit walk. The suit was slipping in and out of consciousness. 'So far, this isn't the best start.' I thought to myself as we trudged through the empty rooms and hallways.


	2. First Night

**The Perfect Predicament**

_Secretly M_

I could either think our little rag-tag group was really lucky or incredibly unlucky. Suit was panting as Coach and I pulled him through the hallway.

"Stairs." The Southerner said, opening the door for Coach, the suit and I. It was hard for me to pull such heavy weight down stairs.

"Almost there!" Coach sang, helping suit over a barricaded door. All suit did was grunt, I think that was the only noise he could make.

The walk through rooms were quiet, no infected in site, not like I was complaining. My gut twisted and heart thumped nervously as I saw blood stains on the floors and walls, still bright red a fresh.

I breathed out a sigh of relief as we set suit down on the elevator door. I stayed with him as Coach and the southerner pillaged nearby medical carts and closets for supplies.

My eyes widened, suit slowly pulled himself up. I quickly reached for him, but he refused my help. "I'm fine." He said, voice cracked but almost back to normal. "Those pills really helped."

I smiled and he smiled back. Again, my gut twisted, but this time it was filled with butterflies. Did I like him?

"Are you alright?" He asked, eyebrows furrowed.

I could feel my cheeks burn and I scratched the back of my head. Typical signs that I had a crush on him. Silently, I cursed at myself. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"We didn't find much, but it's somethin'!" The southerner had a wide grin on his face.

Once we were all the elevator, Coach hit the button and we headed towards the ground floor.

"So, uh… name's Rochelle, what about yours?" I said, filling the emptiness the silence was creating between us.

"Folks call me Ellis. I run an auto shop with a couple of my buddies. We're also in a band. I play bass."

"Nice shooting out there Rochelle," Suit took a second to smile and me before continuing. "Name's Nick but don't try remembering it cause I ain't sticking around for long."

"Well, let's stick together for a while, Nick." Coach said, glaring at Nick.

The elevator started filling with smoke that burned my eyes. Our group started coughing. When the elevator finally jerked to a stop, we quickly made two teams and went to each side of the elevator to try and force the door open. I found myself in Nick's arms as I fell back when the door flew open. He helped me up and our group made their way into the next room.

Two sub-machine guns sat on the floor, and I could feel eyes shift between the four of us.

"I'll take one." Nick said, picking one up.

"Uh… me too." Ellis said, nervously picking up the other one. "I usually only shoot shotguns, but I can figure this out."

"You better hurry up." Nick replied, already crouching down and shooting at the incoming horde.

It was awkward, Coach and I standing behind Nick and Ellis, unable to do anything without a firearm. It was too dangerous to get in front of them and help.

I could hear the unusual roar that came from the infected, probably their way of signaling other monsters to come and join their ranks. Ellis and Nick cut through the infected, there was so many it was unbelievable. I knew it had been too quiet upstairs, but we were lucky to have them down here instead.

"Rochelle?" Ellis said, poking me on the shoulder. "We can go now."

"Oh."

My thought were obviously distracting me, and I think all three men could see that. Coach gave a little shove forward, a supportive one, nothing pushy or rude.

My eyes continued to burn, I could feel them watering, even though that didn't even help. I'm pretty sure we were all sweating, we all had to constantly keep a hand up to block our eyes from the flames.

There was a room with gun rack with three shotguns placed in it and a medkit on a table. We emptied the contents of the health kit and divided the supplies evenly between the four of us. Ellis happily picked up a shotgun and handed me his sub-machine gun. Coach picked up a shotgun as well and before we left Nick quickly showed me how to use the gun and how to reload.

The next room, and only other room that we noticed wasn't blocked off or completely engulfed in flames was a kitchen, half of the room still burning.

We had to climb over a counter, which seemed easy for everyone else to do, I was a bit embarrassed when Coach had to help me down.

As we turned a corner, Coach was pummeled and an over-sized infected with a large arm slammed him into the ground. It was down in a split-second, now that our group was equipped with guns. I rushed over to help him.

"Are you okay?!" I asked with wide eyes.

"Nothin' I haven't taken before." Coach replied.

I smiled at him and we moved on. I could see a hint of sadness in his eyes, but it was soon replaced with a sense of proudness. I made a mental note to ask him what he meant later.

"Man, at first I wasn't thinkin' we could make it, but now I'm sure we can take on anythin'!" Ellis shouted as we came into view of the safe room door.

He said what everyone was thinking, and I smiled. The Southerner was right. All hope had seemed lost, but now the cloudy skies were starting to clear up. Coach locked the door behind us and I collapsed to the floor, a huge weight lifted from my body.

I rubbed my legs, which didn't hurt as much as they did before. Sweat and blood covered me from head to toe. My burnt skin was crispy, a scab forming over them already.

I lifted my head to see that Coach had already passed out behind a counter, which made sense, considering his age. Ellis was sitting on top of the counter, swinging his legs. Nick was closest to me, our shoulders touching.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Nick asked, his icy touch on my burning skin felt nice.

"All things considered, I'm doing better than I'd thought." I replied, my eyes never leaving the place where his fingers were.

He caught me glaring at his hand and moved them quickly back to his lap, probably not even realizing they were there.

"Y'all are shakin', ya know that right?" Ellis asked, sitting up straight and halting his legs to a stop.

"How are you feeling after what happened?" Nick said. He left a hint of annoyance in his tone of voice.

"I'm not." Ellis replied, his emerald eyes tearing up. "I couldn't save nobody. My family. My friends. But I try my best to be happy cause I know that if I look at the good things in life, things won't seem so bad. Y'all should try it." The Southerner hopped off the counter and went in a nearby small closet, and didn't come back out.

I'm positive my face looked as surprised as Nick's when Ellis said this. I was about to go and get Ellis, but suit stopped me.

"He needs to be alone." He said plainly.

I shook my head, agreeing. "I guess I wanted to make myself feel better." I said, letting those words fill the silent room before dozing off.

* * *

_*Morning*_

Waking up was the hardest thing I'd done since the apocalypse started. My muscles were cramped, my neck hurt, my back ached.

"Man, I am _too _young to feel this old…" I groaned, standing up and stretching.

"How old are you, Rochelle?" Ellis asked, an innocent and childish look on his face.

My face flustered red, and I guessed Ellis didn't suspect that to be an embarrassing question for a women. "...29." I answered quickly before walking over to the counter and grabbing a sub-machine gun. The kick of a shotgun was too much for me to handle very quickly, so this was my best choice.

We all pulled on our med-kit's and grabbed guns, loading them with ammo and slinging them into holsters as if it was a daily routine that we'd been doing our whole lives.

"Ay', I know a gun shop near here where we can get some real weapons. We just gotta make a little pit stop on our way to the mall." Ellis said, smiling to himself.

"Sounds good, young'un." Coach replied, loading his gun.

"Ya' know what? This reminds me of a time when my buddy Keith tried campin' out on top of a building once. He was shootin' crows, but the police were too busy teargassin' him to ask what he was doin' up there. He screamed for an entire year every single time he opened his eyes! Oh, man! At first, it was funny; then it just got sad, but then it got funny again! Oh, man!" The Southerner spoke too quickly for anybody to interrupt, and when he was finished, all Ellis could do was laugh to himself.

"I swear to god Ellis if you ever do that again I'll-"

"Let's go, Nicholas." Coach said firmly, opening the safe-room door.


End file.
